Blast from the Past -- Harry Potter, Book 7

When we started blogging years ago in October of 2006, we started a family blog for Mark's side of the family. Since then, every family has started their own and the Family Blog has gone private and continues to be used by the whole family now and then.

Here is a post from July 21, 2007 at almost 1am (I'm editing to use nicknames. Also, this is when we were living in our townhouse):




We LOVE Harry Potter. I guess I feel geeky the way Star Wars Freaks get when they line up for days to watch the movies. We are Harry Potter GEEKS and proud of it! It's 1am and our kids are barely falling asleep--totally worth it to be part of HISTORY!! This is such a fun and amazing and wonderful phenomenon and it's SO great to be a part of it!

Our local Waldenbooks at the Mall held a Harry Potter Party this evening and it was REALLY fun! We finished book 6 today as a family and got over to the party. We all have fun costumes and took pictures for the costume contest. Oh! And the (newspaper) also took pictures of (Thing 1 and Thing 2) and got our names for the paper! :) How exciting!

We enjoyed Snape Bingo, Harry Potter Trivia, Name that Spell, Harry Potter Spelling Bee, Food, Fun, and More! SO fun to hang out with fellow Harry Potter geeks, too! We won all kinds of raffle tickets (though no wins came of those). We all got glow-in-the-dark Borders sticks. I got a $10 gift card to the mall for Snape Bingo. (Thing 1) got a $10 gift card to Borders for the trivia contest (it was a hard question, too, and she nailed it!). (Thing 1) also got a set of Harry Potter markers for being the best youngest Spelling Bee contestant (among many amazed looks and murmurs and questions of How old is she?!). She is a WIZ (no pun intended)! She can tell you anything about any book (very excitedly, too) and LOVES Harry Potter. (Thing 2) won the costume contest and got a really cool gift bag with all kinds of stuff including a big movie-size box of Raisinets, Pop Rocks, a Harry Potter 5 Soundtrack, A Harry Potter Pin, Harry Potter Film Strips, a rubber snake, some fun scrapbook-type stuff (broom, witch's hat, spellbook, etc.), free movie tickets, and bubbles all in a very cute, fun stenciled and decorated bag! VERY fun and perfect-size party!!

The kids saved up their money and bought themselves wands (that light up and have sounds) and have been playing Hogwarts, Hogwarts Express, and dueling spells! They're so cute yelling out "Expelliarmus!" and "Accio Wand!" They've also been playing Quidditch. For Hogwarts Express, they use our primary color cart on wheels in our schoolroom and pretend it's the snack cart on the train and we can get soup, tea, and various candies (chocolate frogs, etc.) for knuts and galleons! :)

A friend of ours ordered Book 7 for us through Amazon so we get it tomorrow and celebrate with our own mini-party. We've got Pumpkin Pasties, Bertie Bott's Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Magic Wands (Pretzel Rods dipped in chocolate and sprinkles), Pumpkin Juice, Butterbeer (Cream Soda), Pixie Stix, etc. We're also eating Fish and Chips British Style. :)

We'll be offline for a while as we're staying away from any potential spoilers, so no TV, no computer, etc. while we read Harry Potter 7! If you ever get a chance to hear the books on tape, get them!! They're AWESOME. I don't usually like books on tape, but this guy (Jim Dale) is phenomenal. Anyway, WE LOVE HARRY POTTER! :)

Oh well, these are all loaded in a mixed-up order. That's okay. Here we are doing the spelling bee:


Here we are in front of the store awaiting costume contest results:


Here we are enjoying our loot:


Here's Mark with his costume:



Me with my costume:



Outside the mall ((Thing 2's) flying on the broomstick):


Here we are playing Snape Bingo:


(Thing 2) with his costume--he's a Quidditch Field! See the Snitch?

And the bludgers, quaffle, and beater?

Here's (Thing 1) dressed up as Fred and George's Joke Shop!


Here's the window with the funny sign:


Yep. Harry Potter Geeks and Proud of it! :)